Clothesline



Patented May 13, 1924.

JOHN n. MoN'rELrUs, or sponsern, WASHINGTON,

CLOTHESLINE.

Application filed January 12, 1922. Serial No. 528,719.

To all whom t may Gomera.'

Be it known that I, JOHN E. MONTELIUS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Spokane, in the county of Spokane and State of `Washington,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clotheslines, ot'which the following is a speciication.

This invention relates to an improved clothes line and seeks, as one ot'its principal objects, to provide a device wherein the clothessupporting member' employed may be readily raised or lowered so thatafter the clothes have been hung upon the said member, the clothes maybe elevated to a position out of the way.

A further object o'l the invention is to provide a clothes line whereinmeans will be provided for raising the opposite ends of the clothessupporting member simultaneously so that the member will always bemaintained in a horizontal position.

And the invention has as a still further object to provide a clothesline which will be of simple and sturdy construction and which may bereadily erected.

Other and incidental objects will appear hereinafter.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is an elevation ot my improved clothes line,

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on the line 2-2 oit'Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, and

Figure 3 is a detail sectional view of the center post pulley employedin conjunction with the elevating mechanism for the clothes supportingmember employed.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, it will be seen that lemploy a pair of end posts 10 and a. center post 11 arrangedsubstantially midway between the end posts. These posts are preferablyof tubular construction and are bent at their upper ends to providelaterally directed arms, the arms of the end posts being indicated at 12and the arm of the center post being indicated at 18. As will beobserved, the arms of the end posts are arranged to project toward eachother and sunk in the ground to support each of the posts in an erectposition is a preferably cement base 14. Straddling the end posts 10 areyokcs 15 upon which are mounted spreaders 1G. As best shown in Figure 2,the ends ot the yokes are arranged to projectl through the spreader-sand carry `nuts 17 securing the spreaders against displacement.` Thespreaders lie at the inner sides of the posts and mounted upon theyokesto coact with the outer sides of the'posts are rollers 18, theperipheries of whichare grooved to tit the cylindrical surface of theposts. EX- tcnding through each ot' the spreaders is a plurality oi eyebolts 19- and extending from one spreader to the other between the eyebolts are wires or other similar elements 2O which are drawn taut sothat the rollers 18 are thus held lirmly in engagement with the endposts. As will be seen, the wires 2O in conjunction with the spreaders16 and associated parts, provide a clothes supporting member.

Mounted upon the arms 12 of the posts 10 are pulleys 21 and mounted uponthe arm 13 of the post 11 is, as shown in detail in Figure 3, a doublesheave pulley 22. Con` nected to the spreaders 16 at points vmidwaybetween the ends thereof are eye bolts 23. Connected to the eye bolts 23are cables 2,1 and 25 which are trained around the pulleys 21 and 22,one end of the cable 24 being secured to the cable 25 below this latterpulley. Mounted upon the lower end portion of the center post 11 is ayoke 26 upon which is. journaled an appropriate windlass 27 having acrank 28, the lower end of the cable 25 being connected to saidwindlass. Associated with the windlass is a pawl 29 to coact withsuitable ratchet teeth upon the windlass for locking the windlassagainst counter-rotation.

As will now be readily understood in view of the foregoing, afterreleasing the pawl 29, the crank 28 may be operated Jfor lowering theclothes supporting member so that clothes may be readily hung upon thewires 20. This done, the crank may be turned for lifting the member andelevating the clothes to a position out of the way, both ends of themember being raised simultaneously so that the member will always beheld in horizontal position and binding' thereof between the posts 11prevented. I accordingly provide a clothes line of highly effectiveconstruction and a device which will be found exceedingly convenient inany instance where the space available for drying clothes is limitedsince, after the clothes supporting member has been raised, persons mayreadily walk beneath the drying clothes.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

In a clothes line, the combination of spaced cylindrical end posts, acenter post arranged between the end posts, all of said posts being bentat their upper ends to provide laterally directed arms, U-shaped yokesstraddling the end posts, rollers carried by said yokes to coact withthe end posts and having their peripheries grooved to lit thecylindrical surface of the end posts, spreaders mounted upon the ends ofsaid yokes, flexible clothes supporting elements extending taut betweensaid spreaders holding said rollers in engagement with the end posts,pulleys mounted upon the arms of JOHN n. MoNrnLiUs. [Il a]

